The Royal Ballet , formerly the Royal Theater's Ballet and the Opera Ballet , is the ballet company at the Royal Opera in Stockholm . The ballet was founded as early as 1773 by Gustav III and is thus one of the world's oldest ballet companies. The Royal Ballet was founded in 1773 as part of Gustav III 's national cultural project together with Opera and Dramaten to create domestic talents for the three artistic professions dancers, opera singers and actors. These had previously been dominated by temporary foreign theater troupes.

Ballets had been performed at the court by foreign troops at least since the 17th century ; Antoine de Beaulieu 's French dance troupe was employed at Queen Kristina's court as early as 1638. The first ballets performed by professional Swedish dancers were included in the plays by the first Swedish theater troupe on the first national stage in the Royal Swedish Theater in Stora Bollhuset 1737–1753. The first Swedish ballet performance here was included in the play Den afvundsiuke in August 1738, and they are then mentioned as part of the performances up to the play Zaire , which was performed in April 1752. However, no names are known of these early Swedish dancers.